B.T.'s Smokehouse logo tattoo earns patrons free meals for life

Tuesday

When Jason Christiansen is hungry and craving some pulled pork, all he has to do is walk into B.T.'s Smokehouse and show a little leg to get a free meal.

Mr. Christiansen of Charlton is one of the people who can eat for free for life at B.T.'s Smokehouse because they have voluntarily branded themselves with a tattoo of B.T.'s bull and pig logo.

“When I heard about the deal, I said, I've got to get in on it,” said Mr. Christiansen, who stops for a meal about once a week. “Free food. I can deal with that. I came down the next day and showed him in person. I have saved more on food than the tattoo cost.”

As Brian Treitman, owner of B.T.'s, was planning to launch his restaurant on Main Street, he was looking to brand his business and consulted different marketing companies, but the cost was beyond what he could afford. Instead, he contacted a local tattoo artist, who created six drawings for $200 that could be turned into digital images, and from that he chose his bull and pig logo.

In 2010, the year he opened at his current location, the Tattoo and Art Festival was held at the Sturbridge Host hotel. Mr. Treitman had just started a Facebook account for B.T.'s and wrote a post asking if he should get the logo tattooed on himself. The next year, he threw out that challenge to his 2,000 Facebook fans, offering free food for life for anyone who did get a tattoo of the logo.

“A bunch of people called and asked about it, but no one did it,” Mr. Treitman said.

Last year, he repeated the challenge to his growing fan base of 5,000.

That weekend, three people accepted the challenge. Now, nine people have a tattoo of B.T.'s logo.

The only stipulation is that the tattoo be larger than three inches and be somewhere that can easily be seen or shown. The majority of those who chose to get the B.T. tattoo have it on their calf; some have it on their forearm. One customer has the logo as his first-ever tattoo. Each tattoo has slight modifications to make it unique.

The majority of those who got themselves inked return to B.T.'s about once a week, some less frequently.

“They are allowed to get enough food for one person to consume in one sitting,” Mr. Treitman said.

Heather Cummings of Brimfield saw the challenge on Facebook and immediately thought of her husband, Jonathan.

“I had been eating there quite a bit, and she thought it could save us some money,” Mr. Cummings said, adding that he eats at B.T.'s on average twice a week.

However, there is more meaning to the tattoo than free food for Mr. Cummings. His wife's maiden name is Bacon, and her grandparents own a farm in Brookfield.

Mr. Cummings didn't tell everyone locally about the nature of his tattoo, not wanting others to horn in on the special, but will offer the back story to people from out of the area.

“This thing makes dividends,” said Marcel Gaumond of West Brookfield, who compared his tattoo to Mr. Christiansen's one recent day. Mr. Gaumond visits B.T.'s about once a week.

To be a regular is one thing, but to proclaim your loyalty in permanent ink?

“I've traveled around the country for work, and I have spent some time in the South. I've eaten barbecue all over the place,” Mr. Gaumond said. “This place is something special. It's the love for the meat and the special touches.”

B.T.'s is a small restaurant crammed with flavor — from the personalities that stop there from across the region, country and world, to the specialties such as brisket and bread pudding, and the proprietary spices that season them. The bathrooms are painted with chalkboard paint to encourage writing on the walls.

B.T.'s started as a trailer, parked on the roadside in Brimfield. B.T.'s then moved to a spot near Yankee Spirits before ultimately finding its current home at 392 Main St.

Mr. Treitman started in fine dining, working at Spire in Boston. While he made a living on fine dining, he dabbled at home in barbecue.

When Spire was sold and renamed and celebrity chefs were brought in, Mr. Treitman decided to move on and focus on barbecue, and tested his food on treasure seekers at the Brimfield antiques show. In the years since, his brand of BBQ has grown a loyal following and Mr. Treitman is even expanding his Main Street location this year, adding 21 seats — making it bigger, but not big enough to lose the personal touch.

Mr. Treitman is himself tattooed with symbols of his trade — sausage links and knives, a pork cut chart and hanging beef are interwoven into a more intricate design on each arm; he even sports a tattoo of his own logo on his calf — but instead of the initials “B.T.” he has the initials of his children's first names — Lilli and Eli.

The challenge will be offered again this year, during the week that the tattoo festival is in town in April, and may likely be the last time.

“I want to keep it elite so that these people feel like they are part of something special,” Mr. Treitman said.

“If you know barbecue, then you know that barbecue down South is not just a food, it's a religion,” said Mr. Treitman. “To have that experience up here is just phenomenal.”

Contact Donna Boynton at dboynton@telegram.com or follow her on Twitter @DonnaBoyntonTG

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